Namsan Seoul Tower

This past week has been quite exciting. The students are getting ready for final tests, but Corey and I have managed to get some engaging lesson plans in. Corey's class has been doing world geography in English. My second year students have been writing pen-pal letters to students in Canada. Trying to make November fun is very difficult, but I'm proud of us for trying....

This weekend we went to Seoul. This time we went with a destination in mind. We followed the directions to get to Namsan Tower! We took the cable car up the mountain and saw some gorgeous views of Fall colours below us. That was very nice, but I was extra excited because there was music playing in our cable car and guess what song was on??? Carly Rae Jepsen's, Call Me Maybe! A Canadian musician was serenading us all the way over here in Seoul.

 At the top of the mountain, there are restaurants and lookout points. It's very touristy on a Saturday afternoon. Corey and I played the role of tourists too. We bought tickets to ride the elevator up to the tower's observatory. We were crammed into a dark little elevator with about a dozen other people. There was a screen on the ceiling that showed a cartoon version of the ascent. This is what the screen looked like....

 We got off the elevator at the top and looked around the 360 degree observatory. The coolest part was that there was a post office right there at the top of the tower. The views were pretty cool too. Other than that, there were a lot of tourists and the whole inner part of the observatory was lined with gift shop items to tempt small children. And what parent is going to deny their child a Namsan Tower souvenir and risk having them burst into a temper tantrum while being trapped at the top of a tower? It's brilliant marketing. There were a lot of kids walking around with new toys and satisfied smirks on their faces.

Corey and I took the elevator back down to the bottom of the tower. We walked past the cosmetic shop, card shop, coffee shop, and restaurant that blocked the exit. Once we made it into the courtyard surrounding the tower, we saw performers dressed in old-fashioned Korean military costumes. They were just starting a performance so we stayed to watch. Corey really enjoyed the play sword fighting, where the performers pretended to kill each other off with a variety of traditional spears and swords. Corey thought of a young cousin Keith playing with an imaginary light sabre and thought he might enjoy knowing that he could have pursued that as a full-time career in Korea. The performers certainly seemed to enjoy their job and they even took some time to pose for a picture with us after the show.

We walked down the mountain path. I was freezing. What else is new? Corey had to stop and take a picture of a wild rooster on the way down, but then we made it to a coffee shop to get warm. It was called A Twosome Place, which is a popular chain of coffee shops here in Korea. We've seen them around Incheon, but this is the first time we visited one. We got some hot chocolate and plotted the rest of our day. We decided just to walk around and see whatever we came across.

We walked around Myeong-dong station and saw some amazing lights all over the huge department stores and smaller shops that lined the streets. Every brand name was available in the stores, as well as every knock-off was available from carts and trucks set up outside the huge stores. 

I must add a section on street food here. Near Myeong-Dong we bought a swirly-potato-fry-on-a-stick. It was delicious! Cooked to a perfect golden colour and rolled in salty cheese powder (that Corey adds, "tastes like Kraft dinner powder!"), this confection should not be missed. 

Also, we tasted some local street food. Very local, since the truck has started parking right outside our apartment. These are fish-shaped pastries, but they're not filled with fish. They're actually filled with a sweet red bean paste.

A library right under our noses!

It's the Fall in Incheon Korea. Maybe there should be a comma after Incheon. I wouldn't publish that if I was your publisher. Or should I say were your publisher. 

No. No new paragraph. This is nonsense. No one will want to read this. The end.

No seriously, this is the end.

(The above portion was guest-contributed by Corey. He's very particular that his words not be minced so I have made sure to write them exactly as spoken.)

It's the Fall in Incheon, Korea. It's getting colder, but we still manage to go for some nice long walks. This past weekend we returned to Subong Park (where we saw the artificial waterfall a few weeks ago). This time, Corey ran into some of his students. He asked if they were going hiking. They shook their heads sadly, pointed at the building that's shaped like a boat and said, "no, we're studying at the library."

This was the first time we realized that we lived just ten minutes walk from a library. So exciting! Corey and I went inside to check it out. The first floor was children's books and they had a large selection in English so of course I was happy to stay there with a book by Gail Carson-Levine.

Meanwhile, Corey went to do some further exploring and took some photos of the ship-shaped library.

 Picture from the rooftop of the library.

 Top floor of the library. There's a ship steering wheel!

 One red tree in Subong park

We also went on a walk to Juan station, which turned into a walk to Ganseok station, which turned into a walk to a huge park a couple blocks beyond the station. I should know better now when Corey says we're going for a little walk that we're actually going on an odyssey.

We saw the finished knitting on the sculptures near Juan that we had seen women working on a couple weeks prior.

Sculpture covered in hand-knit garments.

We enjoyed the autumn colours in the park. Plus, this park had the largest selection of built-in exercise equipment I've seen since the Hangang Park in Seoul. It's about an hour walk to get there, but it's worth it. We passed a lot of interesting houses and businesses on the way to keep things interesting.

Corey sitting in the park.

 Corey being exorcised...er I mean exercising

Emily sitting in the park.

This was more than a week ago, but I also need to give a shout out to "The Boardgames Incheon Group" who meet weekly-ish at Bupyeong. I was invited to join them for the most epic game (even better than Risk!) called Red November. The way the game works is that everyone plays a drunken gnome, and together all the players try to save an experimental submarine from inevitable doom. If you get a chance to play this game, do it! It made for a very fun night with some fellow foreign teachers.

Tests and Peppero Day

This weekend's been quite lazy. Yesterday the weather was fairly warm and sunny. We did get out to walk a bit which was good. We ate lunch at a traditional Korean restaurant and then went grocery shopping at the local supermarket which is just across the subway tracks from our Dohwa apartment.

Today has been rainy and cold. I haven't even bothered to change out of my pajamas. It's Peppero day, which is kind of like valentines day in Korea, where people give their friends and loved ones peppero (a kind of cookie). I got a heart shaped one for Corey, but I forgot to take a photo of it before he ate it. He says "it was delicious" though.

The week at school at school was pretty typical. A lot of textbook work to get through. The third grade students are getting ready for their end-of-year tests which determine which high schools they can get into next year so things are a little bit more tense than usual.

The Senior high school students also wrote their end of year tests on Thursday. It's kind of like the SAT  in the States. All the Senior students in Korea write on the same day and most of the schools and some businesses close so that people can go and cheer on the students who are going to write. Corey's school was closed, but mine stayed open. I took some photos of the high school and of my own school with the pretty Fall colours.

Crowd cheering on senior students at Sunin High School

Walkway to Sunin Middle School

Stairway to our school library

Sunin Middle School from the front

Trees to be planted

That's about all the excitement this week. I'll try and be better about taking photos of stuff that happens next week. Until then, Happy Peppero Day!

Wolmi do

Last Sunday, Corey and I went out for a little walk as we often do. We started in the direction of our schools, near Jemulpo subway station. Then we kept walking because Corey wanted to go to the edge of Incheon and be by the water. I think it's because he's a Pisces, but he's always drawn to water.

So we walked about an hour more until we were near a boat port, but it was off limits except for people involved in shipping goods to China. So we walked further on and there was an International Ferry Dock, but again it was gated off so we could barely even glimpse the water. 

Across the street from the ferry dock was an E-Mart (kind of like Wal-Mart) We went inside and looked around. I bought some fuzzy socks and an even fuzzier robe in preparation for Winter. That used up all my cash, but Corey assured me he'd buy me lunch when we got to some place that was more interesting to eat than the cafeteria at E-Mart.

With this plan to get lunch, we set off again. I think it was around this time that I saw the signs for Wolmido--an island amusement park surrounded by water. It seemed like the perfect destination to find Corey his large body of water and for me to get some lunch.

So we walked and walked and walked until I was starving and couldn't walk anymore. Corey bought me a box of cookies at a variety store and I ate the entire thing as we walked. We passed hotels. We passed monuments. We passed China Town. Still, we were determined to reach Wolmi do.

Eventually we did get there. We saw the sign that told use we'd reached Wolmi do. Then we walked along a path that led through beautiful gardens and up some stairs that wound their way into a forested area, but still no water and still nowhere to get lunch (which by this time would be dinner).

Finally, after about another half hour of walking around the island, we came to the boardwalk! Best of all, there were a ton of interesting restaurants that lined the walkway. After a few photos in front of the ocean, we found a restaurant with a big window overlooking the water. We ate some fish (since we were by the ocean after all) and sat for quite a while looking out the window at the boats passing by and artists painting characachers and little kids driving in remote controlled cars.

Afterward we walked past the amusement park rides and then took the bus home. We both agreed the walk had been worthwhile.

School Festivals and Sports Days

I haven't updated the blog in a while. Corey and I have been involved in multiple festivals and activities going on at our schools over the past couple of weeks. It's been fun, but kept us very busy!

My school had their festival day on Oct. 18. It was kind of like an open house in the morning with a lot of student work on display. Plus, students did science demonstrations. One station had students cooking bread in cardboard boxes and aluminum foil ovens that they hooked up to some kind of giant battery. Another station had students making a kind of toffee over bunsen burners. It was delicious!

In the afternoon, there was a 3 hour talent show that included acts by students and teachers from the school as well as a semi-professional girls' dance group (that the boys went crazy over!) and a group of older ladies dressed in Hanbok, doing traditional Korean dances. Overall it was a pretty good day.

Oct. 19th was Sports Day. The students competed in a soccer tournament, relay races, and skipping contests. I even participated in the teachers vs. parents relay race. The parents won, but all the participants got a prize--an umbrella! Very practical. At the end of the day the Principal announced there would be a staff dinner. One of my co-teachers drove me and another English teacher to the restaurant. It was my first taste of Korean barbecue. The food was really good and I think I'm starting to get used to eating in traditional Korean style, sitting cross-legged on the floor and helping myself to a variety of dishes with my chopsticks.

I took a lot of photos on Sports day and put them together in a slide show with English captions to show to my students the following week and they enjoyed reliving that day through the pictures in English class.

This week, Corey was especially busy getting ready for the big Incheon English festival that brings together several schools from the area to perform plays, musicals, and songs in English. Corey's school performed Wizard of Oz and Corey was a truly memorable wizard in his bright coloured costume all covered in bells! I'm so proud of him. I got to go to the festival too since my school was in it, performing High School Musical. This gave me the perfect opportunity to take some pictures of Corey in costume. Can you spot him in the crowd?

After the festival we went out with the cast of Wizard of Oz for dinner. This was Corey's first experience of Korean Barbecue since we got here. I think the picture says it all. Note the fork.

To The Future

Yesterday, Corey and I went to Songdo International Business District. It's a fancy new development with a lot of Western style apartments, shops, and hotels. Oh and did I mention that it's actually part of Incheon! So cool!

We got off the subway at "Central Park" Station on the Incheon subway line. The first thing we saw was the Tri-bowl. It's a huge piece of architecture that is overwhelming to try and take in. I've heard that it lights up at night and looks like a spaceship. We will have to go back to see that! We will have to go back in general because there is so much to see and do. 

Anyway, around the tri-bowl are all these modern glass apartments that look like they are bending and swaying. They are not the usual rigid apartments that announce "here I am standing in the way of the sun and anything else you might want to see." No. These apartments coo, "really, you came to see me, so look at me-- I'm beautiful." And they're right.

Then there's a path that leads into Songdo Central Park (as the station name suggests). The park is young, but there are saplings everywhere that will turn into mature trees to shade walkways, create miniature pine forests, and an orchard. Although the pathways are not as endless or winding as those in New York's central park, they are beautiful and every inch has been well though out. There are arched walkways covered in vines and Fall vegetation. There's a man-made river that runs the length of the park, with a boat house at the end. All the way along are plans, rocks, sculptures, and a million other things to stop and admire if you're not focused on running along the runners' path or zooming along the bike paths.

Corey and I just meandered along every path we came across and then we went across the street to find.......another park! This one was more of a kids park with a musical fountain, splash pad, and jungle gyms. A group of kids were sitting on a blanket playing with Lego blocks, designing their own creative architectural works. There were also kids playing catch and soccer in the field areas. There were kids climbing on the sculptures of whales. There were kids riding on rented quadricycle cars along the pretend road that runs through the park. Basically the park belonged to kids, but Corey and I still enjoyed walking through and we even wandered into a sculpture garden where no one was around, because I guess kids don't care that much about sculptures of The Birth of Venus. 

After all this walking, Corey and I got some ice cream at the local Baskin Robbins and then headed back toward home. On the way we stopped into the "Compact Smart City" museum that showed diagrams of how the city has changed. There were even descriptions in English. So we read a bit, but the museum couldn't capture how amazing the reality of all this city-planning was. You had to go outside to appreciate it, I think. Sorry for the endlessness of this blog entry but it does seem to go with the endlessness of the International Business District. If you get a chance, check it out!

 

Gangnam Style

This post is very late, but I just realized I didn't write about our Psy adventure!

You've probably heard of Psy, but in case you're living under a rock I will explain that Psy is the singer of the world famous song Gangnam Style and he's an especially big deal here in his native Korea. So when Corey found out that Psy was going to be performing a live concert at City Hall in Seoul there was no way we could miss the chance to hear Gangnam Style performed live by Psy himself.

After school on Thursday, October 4th, Corey and I made our way to Seoul by subway. We got to City Hall around 9pm. Psy wasn't expected to perform until 10pm, but already the place was packed. There were people crowding every surface of pavement. There were even people standing on top of cars and the roofs of subway station shelters to get a better view. I didn't dare take out my camera for fear of losing it in the crowd.

It was crazy! There were 80 000 people crammed into the square.I'm not just talking teen fans, but everyone from business men in suits to senior citizens and young children. All of them were singing along to Psy's entire concert. Who knew he even had enough songs for an entire concert? It was so funny to hear an entire city chanting in unison to Gangnam style though. Every man, woman, and child was screaming at the top of their lungs "Heeeeeeeeeeeey sexy lady!" 

The concert finished after 11pm so we could only take the subway halfway back toward Incheon since our part of the line was closed for the night. Then we took a half hour taxi ride back to the apartment, but it only cost about the equivalent of $30. Let's just say the concert was well worth the price of admission plus cab fare.

(Corey took pictures at the concert. He's very brave. I will post them soon.)